We start this story with a competition. Beginning with Group A, they consisted of nine people. Mr. Gunputh, Maayan, Paul- Emile, Alice, Lea, Amy, Baxter and Lexa. There were 4 groups in total, I was in Group A. The rafts were made of around six or seven huge bamboo logs they were around ten meters long, the rows were dainty, small (which made it hard to row) and if you didn't have gloves, rest assured you would get cuts. And guess who didn't wear gloves? ME.

The rules were to paddle from the houseboat, to the island, get a rock and come back. Then the next group would do the same, the two groups back with two rocks, won! Oh it was a relay race by the way. All the other teams were positive that the boys were going to win, they are the strongest, I mean in your mind who is going to win, a couple of girls or nine boys per group. Once the whistle blew, all the groups were paddling with all their strength. After cheering and shouting “Come on, you can do it guys!” or “You’re so close, just a little further” the first half of our group fell to it's doom and lost the first round. The race wasn’t over, the groups were split into two and our group was just about to start rowing. Once the first half of our group came off the boat, we sprinted onto the raft and left as soon as we could.

We were already miles ahead of the others, we were shocked at how we were beating the boys. We were getting closer to the island although we all realised that we were paddling the wrong way. We found that the paddle had to be rowed to the left for the raft to go to the right. So confusing, I know. We made it to the island first, Lexa the closest to the front of the raft, grabbed a large, ridged rock and we made it back to the houseboat watching the other teams struggling and falling into the water. We may or may not have giggled a little, but come on who wouldn't laugh at people falling off, anything really, especially into water! The other groups were in the middle of the first journey to the island. We were so astonished that we had won. Most of the other groups were five or six per raft, we were four.

All strength, if used to quickly, can be overused. Think of it as the tortoise and the hare. The boys are the hare and we are the tortoise. We were steady and consistent. They were paddling with all their strength but stopping because their energy couldn't keep up with them, good try though. If you overuse your power, be certain that you won't have it for long.

I don't know about you guys but that isn't my only moral, If you believe you will lose, chances are you will. If you believe that you can achieve. The chances of you winning are much higher I'll tell you that. Never give up or never say never, you choose?

The group starts off jumping off the slippery, muddy speedboats. They land in revolting black mud, some of the adventurer’s start to squint in disgust. They make their way through the mud and OH Allegra slips into the water, that’s gonna hurt in the morning! All the kids are trying to go fast to get to the destination faster so they don’t get soaked by the rain. Two girls, the victims of the most leech bites earlier have stayed at the end of the track, they know what it means to be uncomfortable. Alice and Lea make their way slowly not rushing, checking their shoes every minute and OOH Lea slips into the quicksand knees deep in the watery mud. These two ladies have truly had the worst day today, the last trek and all, but that’s a different story. Looking back at the group ahead, some of the lot have already gotten to the shiny, gorgeous waterfall and are already swimming shirtless. Everyone is arriving and people are diving in all clothed too!

Still walking through the river, Alice and Lea have no care in the world what could happen next, it seems as though they are prepared for anything now. They have finally arrived, rain is storming on their heads and ooooh Alice had that coming, she slipped, she slipped into the river onto the rocks. What is it with these kids, tomorrow half of them will all have bruises, I’ll tell you that.

The rest of the bunch are playing in the water having fun, while our two very special girls are now cooped up in the little sheltered hut keeping all the bags for everyone else. The two are certainly talking about something entertaining, it doesn’t seem so bad for them with those smiling laughs on their faces.

Thinking that Lea and Alice has escaped those dreaded leeches, they come to find one on Nanami’s jacket, that poor girl when she sees the creature she will not be smiling, thats for sure. Lea warns Nanami, though apparently she is not that affected by it, look at her! Completely calm. The two girls are shocked at this reaction, clearly. When they had leeches they were practically blue in the face from screaming.

Lea’s going to the guide, oh she’s asking him if they can go, EH they said yes, what a fantastic answer for those poor little ladies. The group is heading back. And look at that our two special girls are the first ones of the group, speeding to the speedboats. Paul-Emile, has fallen in the quicksand, thighs deep. OH MY GOD! where have his shoes gone. He tries to grab them in the sand which is deep in the river. Can he make it? Yeah, he did it his shoes are back (clapping recording). The rest of the group isn’t so far, look at them. Everyone running now with the rain trampling them, they try and try, look at that nobody slipped, that's a miracle for this batch. Look at the speedboats go. See you next time our muddy friends.

The second trek of the trip. The longest one of all. This experience of mine has probably been the worst one on the trip. Firstly, let’s start with what happened. We started climbing rocky, dark, muddy, damp hills of the forest. In the beginning the guides told us that we may get leaches. To me, that sounded as, if you are unlucky you may get one or two. Although after I had around six on my legs, I started to go hysterical. Jumping around like a kangaroo, everyone was laughing, I suppose I would have too if it happened to someone else to.

Once I passed having ten leeches on my legs, I decided to suck it up and remove them all at the end. That thought stood in my mind for a couple seconds, until I jumped and screamed "get them off me!" The guide took them all off and by the end of the trek, I was emotionally satisfied that I came out of the forest leech free. Something started itching me in the middle of the hike and I expected that it was probably a mosquito that bit me or some type of cut that I got from the prickly thorns on the floor. I was definitely not prepared for what I saw, there was a massive, enormous, monstrous leech that was sucking on me, having a good meal under my leggings for the past three hours of the trek. I was only sitting there talking to my friends when I accidentally touched the slimy, icky, disgusting, revolting creature without looking. Why did I have to be the main meal of the group?

Let me make myself clear that there were not only bad parts, the group saw tigers paws hiding in the trees, a monitor lizard, spiders, there were even tarantulas, there were even supposed to be elephants, I know because I stepped in it’s poo (truly the most revolting part of the trek). Even though we saw all these amazing animals and sites in the jungle, all I could think about was the total of nineteen leeches that were stuck to me. When something is sucking on your blood that is really the only thing you think about, even if you were surrounded by a tower of money.

This trek for me was definitely a downer, although many people didn’t get bitten so I guess I was just unlucky and they surely thought the trek was fascinating. Personally I don’t recommend this trek, but on the other hand I am not used to these adventures, if you are a hiker and that's what you do as a hobby, then this escapade is definitely the one for you.

Let me just tell you about this fascinating trip I went on with my school friends just a few days ago. The day we got there was when we all caught a whiff of what we were going to be doing for the week. We directly went from the four hour bus ride, to the speedboat, to the houseboat where we were going to stay for the trip. It was in the middle of a lake called Belum state Park. The lake was man made with an electrical dam that produced all the electricity for the whole location. Apparently the lake is four times larger than Singapore and you can even see the tip of the tree trunks that were there before the water was added to the site.

After a quick lunch we took the speedboats to our first destination. Some boats were small with minimal spaces to sit in, wooden seats and blue while the other boats were white with comfortable cushions, it just depended on which group was selected to go in which boat, a cool or boring one. Once we got to the island to do our first activity, we had to climb up this steep, green, rocky hill and a couple of us slipped and a few laughed although that was just part of the experience.

We were visiting a tribe called “Orang-Asli”. The tribe was described to us as the oldest tribe in Malaysia. We learnt about the small and extremely different resources they have, compared to ours. The only electricity source they have is, the small Christmas lights used to light up the outside of their homes. It almost seemed as though they had only one pair of clothes, and that their houses made of green and brown bamboo were falling apart. I thought to myself what if I had to survive in the heat and standards that they do, I probably wouldn’t be able live at all. Although this tribe has been offered by the government several times, to be relocated and live in better, healthier conditions, they won’t budge an inch. They claim that their home has always and will always be where it is.

The resources we saw that were explained to us were, first, the hunting tools. The first hunting tool was a poison dart shooter, it looked like a long piece of hollow wood that let the dart shoot right through it. Anyone who would use it had two tiny baskets on the side of their pockets which in one had white cotton to put on the end of the dart in the hole so that the person who blew through the tube, wouldn’t get pricked by the sharp edges of the dart. The other basket was filled simply with the actual darts which were sharpened to it's peak with a small pocket knife that the hunters carried at all times. They would take the tip of the pointy stick (dart) and brush the knife against it so that pieces of the wood would shred off and make the object sharper.

Another resource they had was to cook, with fire, bamboo and wood. They take the rice that they have and fill a bamboo piece with it so that when they apply it on the flaming, red fire, it would cook well [b]especially when they trying to trap their rice away from the bacteria, that could contaminate their food.They would also kill a chicken, clean it well (special people who know how to do that, were there for the cleaning process) and prick it onto a stick or piece of wood they sharpen. They leave the protein above the fire for a few seconds and keep changing position so that the chicken or other meats won’t burn.

We met some of the cultural people and some of the teenagers (who were pretty uncomfortable by the way) performed a dance on a bamboo built room that they would use for any type of big news that the tribe needed to know about, or a wedding, or any ceremony of their choosing. The dance was performed at any of their events, with instruments strictly made of bamboo. They depend immensely on bamboo, if people took away that massive resource of theirs, they might actually have nothing.

The group learnt mostly about the resources that differed to ours as a lesson for the venture, for example, the tribe, as I told you about before, rely almost always on bamboo. Although to me, I don’t even own anything made from that material, so it has no effect on me. Yet if you took away my phone that would be a whole other story regarding essential resources.

Mrs. Hoff, this is only the first activity and I am already so excited for tomorrow, if you ever do get the chance to go to Belum state Park, I definitely recommend it and it’s only been the first day for me!

The Boats, the speedboats,The gas steaming in our throats.Our groups sitting in seats,Look, we can even see the streets.

They told us it was a man made lake,It’s so beautiful it seems almost fake.The electricity comes from the dam,Any little rock under and the boat goes Bam!

The set of our group of seven,the trip simply seemed like heaven.The wind blowing through our hair,including that soft, delicate, sweet air.

The view, the view, look at those trees,Can we stay a little longer, oh please, please, please.Do you see the shiny, glimmering water,Ugh, could the weather be any small degree hotter.

A thirty minute ride,Through the islands and sites we glide.People showing us the lake’s historical relation,Except all I could think about was the smooth sensation.

The speed of the boat actually made the climate go cold,It was going so fast we had to grip a side to hold.This experience will always be one to treasure,The extraordinary ride to the extent of its fabulous measure.